Here is the final edit of my documentary “The Secret Life of Pigeons” which takes a look into their history, intelligence and place in modern life. I am pretty happy with how it turned out, I should have done a two camera shoot during the interviews and got some more shots of pigeons but apart from that I am pleased.
This is the fine cut of my showreel and I definitely think it is an improvement from my rough cut. The shots are of a better quality and the showreel is a lot shorter so it doesn’t drag on. However, there could have been a lot more variety of shots which is down to me not filming enough. The music used is better however I struggled to find a royalty free song that had any changes in tone or pace so I tried to make a transition between the songs as if someone was changing a radio station. This did not work very well as there is no visual on screen so it doesn’t really make sense.
Overall it is still better than my first cut and the main issue is that I did not film enough footage or give myself enough time to edit. This has been a big lesson and I know that in my future work I need to manage my time a lot better and film a lot more if I want to get better at cinematography.
Today was the final shoot for my documentary and I interviewed a Dooman about what he does. Doomen are people who look after and send out pigeons with the hope that they will bring back a mate that they will then keep. It is a hobby that I had never heard of before so I had a list of questions that I asked him which went well then I filmed him talking in his pigeon loft, whilst also getting some close ups of the birds. I also filmed one of his birds outside the loft using a high shutter speed and frame rate to slow down in post.
I filmed using the Panasonic again which worked really well, it was quite a sunny day so I had to use the nd filter so it wasn’t too over exposed. I used a manfrotto tripod for the interview section and the shoulder mount whilst filming in his loft as it was a small area and I had to move around a lot. I think the footage filmed with the shoulder mount turned out to be quite steady.
Yesterday I did a very short shoot filming a sing language translation of a video promoting the college library. We set up a black background and three point lighting to have a neutral image as the translation will be placed in the corner of the video. I set up a manfrotto tripod and a Canon 60D camera and used a 50mm lens so the interpreters hands were in shot. Once he was in we adjusted the lights so his face was evenly lit and lowered the camera so it was head height. The shot was very simple as it was all one take and one camera angle. We did four takes and the interpreter was happy. It wasn’t very demanding however it was still good to get practice working with people.
Today I went to Clydebank to film Mr A Roberts – the president of the Glasgow and District Federation of Pigeon Racing. I brought the Panasonic camera with me as well as a manfrotto tripod and a blimp. This is because the Panasonic camera is versatile and I could us it for the interview and to zoom in on the birds. I started off asking him questions sitting in front of his pigeon loft and I asked him all about pigeon racing and and what other people think of it. The interview went really well and it was a clear sunny day so the lighting was great.
I then filmed him showing me his pigeons in his loft so I got a lot of close ups of them. The only thing is because the loft was quite small I had to hold the camera but I held it as steady as I could and I think it looked okay.
He let his pigeons out of the loft at 12 and I got a really good shot of them all flying out together. The flock then circles around his house for a while to get their bearings before flying away for about an hour. I managed to get some close up shots of them in the sky which I’m really happy about. Overall I think the shoot today went really well.
Today I filmed in George Square again and I used the same equipment as last time however I swapped the tripod for one that works so I was able to use it for the interviews. I got some really good interviews today, a lot of them were more enthusiastic that I expected with one Indian girl telling me about how pigeons were used as messengers for ancient Indian Kings and Queens.
I got a lot more close up shots of the birds and after waiting for a while managed to get some extreme close ups of their faces and feathers. I’m very pleased as they will work really well for the documentary, particularly in parts where I am describing them. I also got some Establishing shots of George Square and the weather was clear and sunny which was perfect for filming.
I did a short shoot in Alexandra Parade Park today to get some more shots of pigeons including close ups. I also filmed some more shots with a high frame rate and shutter speed to slow down in post. I got some good footage however the birds were all very excited so they were running around quite fast.
Today I did a shoot for my documentary in George Square. It was a very sunny day so it was perfect for shooting. George Square is full of pigeons so it was really easy to get footage of them. I filmed on the Panasonic with a manfrotto tripod and I recorded audio with the blimp with a deadcat on it. I managed to get a variety of shots including wide shots and close ups as well as various shots of them interacting with each other. I brought seeds with me to feed them and when we put them down almost all the birds in the square flocked towards us which was surprising as there were so many of them.
I also got a lot of interviews with the public just asking them what they think of pigeons. The only problem was one of the tripods legs was broken and wouldn’t extend all the way. This meant I could not use it for the interviews so I had to do them handheld. I was as steady as I could be but they are still a bit shaky so I will need to hope that I will be able to stabilize them in Premiere Pro.
This is the first edit of my showreel and it is a very rough cut. It was made as a writer/director and cinematographer showreel so it has a lot of dialogue – way too much – and the quality of the videos is very poor. I also had my peer evaluation in college today and the feedback was that I should cut out a lot of footage and shorten it, focusing on the shots that are of a higher quality. The music did not have a lot of change in it and the shots could have been timed better to it. The transitions also get a bit repetitive with the cut to black between a lot of them and the audio also has a lot of issues.
My final edit of my showreel will just focus on cinematography so I am going to use all of the camera work that I have done so far as well as adding shots from my documentary once it is finished. I will also choose different music to use that has more of a change in pace.
Today I did a practice shoot for my documentary as I will be getting footage of pigeons and I have never filmed any animals before. I went to Alexandra Parade Park and I filmed some ducks and pigeons to get used to what settings I should use. I went in the afternoon as it was the sunniest time of the day, which looks better on camera. I filmed on the Panasonic camera with a manfrotto tripod and I also attached a rode mic to the camera.
I started off filming the ducks, which was difficult to get used to as it was difficult to zoom in and out of the birds and focus on them while they are moving. This meant that some of my shots are shaky and go in and out of focus. I also tried shooting at different frame rates to slow it down in the edit. I filmed some at 60 frames per second with a shutter speed of 1/120 and I also shot some at the normal 24 frames per second with a shutter speed of 1/50.
The pigeons were okay to film when they were relaxed however when they were excited and walking around it was harder to keep up with them while zoomed in. I did manage to get some good footage though and I got used to what settings worked well which will help me when I go on my shoots.
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